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Edward Quillinan
Edward Quillinan (12 August 1791- 8 July 1851) was an English poet and translator. Life Youth Quillinan was born at Oporto, Portugal, the son of Edward Quillinan, an Irishman from a good but impoverished family who had become a prosperous wine merchant. His mother, whose maiden name was Ryan, died soon after her son had been sent, in 1798, to England, to be educated at Roman catholic schools.Garnett, 103. Returning to Portugal, he entered his father's counting-house, but the French invasion under Junot in 1807 obliged the family to seek refuge in England. After spending some time without any occupation, Quillinan entered the army as a cornet in a cavalry regiment, from which, after seeing some service at Walcheren. he passed into another regiment, stationed at Canterbury. A satirical pamphlet in verse, entitled ‘The Ball Room Votaries,’ involved him in a series of duels, and compelled him to exchange into the 3rd dragoon guards, with which he served through the latter portion of the Peninsular war. Career and marriages In 1814 he made his first serious essay in poetry by publishing Dunluce Castle: A poem, which was printed at the Lee Priory Press, 4to; and it was followed by Stanzas by the author of Dunluce Castle (1814, 4to); by The Sacrifice of Isabel, a more important effort (1816); and by Elegiac Verses, addressed to Lady Brydges in memory of her son, Grey Matthew Brydges (Lee Priory, 1817, 4to). In 1817 he married Jemima, second daughter of Sir Samuel Egerton Brydges, and subsequently served with his regiment in Ireland. In 1819 Dunluce Castle attracted the notice of Thomas Hamilton (1789−1842), the original Morgan O'Doherty of Blackwood's Magazine, who ridiculed it in a review entitled Poems by a Heavy Dragoon. Quillinan deferred his rejoinder until 1821, when he attacked Wilson and Lockhart, whom he erroneously supposed to be the writers, in his Retort Courteous, a satire largely consisting of passages from Peter's Letters to his Kinsfolk, done into verse. The misunderstanding was dissipated through the friendly offices of Robert Pearse Gillies, and all parties became good friends.Garnett, 104. Also in 1821 Quillinan retired from the army, and settled at Spring Cottage, between Rydal and Ambleside, and thus in the immediate neighbourhood of Wordsworth, whose poetry he had long devotedly admired. Scarcely was he established there when a tragic fate overtook his wife, who died from the effects of burns, 25 May 1822, leaving two daughters. Wordsworth was godfather of the younger daughter, and he wrote an epitaph on Mrs. Quillinan. Distracted with grief, Quillinan fled to the continent, and afterwards lived alternately in London, Paris, Portugal, and Canterbury, until 1841, when he married Wordsworth's daughter, Dorothy. The union encountered strong opposition on Wordsworth's part, not from dislike of Quillinan, but from dread of losing his daughter's society. He eventually submitted with a good grace, and became fully reconciled to Quillinan, who proved an excellent husband and son-in-law. Quillinan was a sensitive, irritable, but most estimable man. "All who know him," says Southey, writing in 1830, "are very much attached to him." ‘Nowhere,’ says Johnston, speaking of his correspondence during his wife's hopeless illness, "has the writer of this memoir ever seen letters more distinctly marked by manly sense, combined with almost feminine tenderness." Matthew Arnold, in his "Stanzas in Memory of Edward Quillinan," speaks of him as "a man unspoil'd, sweet, generous, and humane." Final years In 1841 Quillinan published The Conspirators, a 3-volume novel, embodying his recollections of military service in Spain and Portugal. In 1843 he appeared in Blackwood as the defender of Wordsworth against Landor, who had attacked his poetry in an imaginary conversation with Porson, published in the magazine. Quillinan's reply was a cento of all the harsh dicta of the erratic critic respecting great poets, and the effect was to invalidate in the mass an indictment whose counts it might not have been easy to answer seriatim. Landor dismissed his remarks as ‘Quill-inanities;’ Wordsworth himself is said to have regarded the defence as indiscreet. In 1845 the delicate health of his wife induced Quillinan to travel with her for a year in Portugal and Spain, and the excursion produced a charming book from her pen. In 1846 he contributed an extremely valuable article to the Quarterly on Gil Vicente, the Portuguese dramatic poet. In 1847 his second wife died. His latter years were chiefly employed in translations of Camoens's Lusiad, five books of which were completed, and of Herculano's History of Portugal. The latter, also left imperfect, was never printed; the Lusiad was published in 1853 by John Adamson, another translator of Camoens. Quillinan himself died in 1851 at Loughrig Holme, Ambleside, of inflammation, occasioned by taking cold upon a fishing excursion. He was buried in Grasmere churchyard. Writing A selection from Quillinan's original poems, principally lyrical, with a memoir, was published in 1855 by William Johnston, the editor of Wordsworth. As an original poet his claims are of the slenderest; his poems would hardly have been preserved but for the regard due to his personal character and his relationship to Wordsworth. His version of the Lusiad, nevertheless, though wanting his final corrections, has considerable merit, and he might have rendered important service to two countries if he had devoted his life to the translation and illustration of Portuguese literature. Publications Poetry *''Ball-room Votaries''. London: Henry Colburn, 1810. *''Dunluce Castle: A poem, in four parts'' (edited by Sir Egerton Brydges). Kent, UK: printed by Johnson & Warwick at the Press of Lee Priory, 1814. *''Stanzas: By the author of Dunluce Castle''. Kent, UK: printed by Johnson & Warwick at the Press of Lee Priory, 1814. *''Consolation: A poem addressed to Lady Brydges''. Kent, UK: printed by Johnson & Warwick at the Press of Lee Priory, 1815. *''Monthermer: A poem''. London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, & Brown, 1815. *''The Sacrifice of Isabel: A poem''. Kent, UK: Lee Priory, 1816; New York: Van Winkle & Wiley, 1816.. *''Verses: Addressed to Lady Brydges, in memory of her son''. Kent, UK: Lee Priory, 1816. *''Elegiac Verses: Addressed to a lady''. Kent, UK: printed by John Warwick at the Press of Lee Priory, 1817. *''Miscellaneous Poems''. 1820.Edward Quillinan(1791-1851), English Poetry, 1579-1830, Center for Applied Technologies in the Humnities, Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University. Web, Oct. 1, 2016. *''Woodcuts and Verses''. Kent, UK: printed by John Warwick at the Press of Lee Priory, 1820. *''The Retort Courteous''. Edinburgh: John Robertson, 1821. *''Carmina Brugensia: Domestic poems'' (edited by Sir Egerton Brydges). Geneva: privately published, 1822. *''The King: The lay of "a papist''. London?: 1830. *''Mischief''. London: Edward Moxon, 1831. *''Ode on the Installation of His Royal Highness Prince Albert as Chancellor of the University of Cambridge'' (written as "Wordsworth"). London: George Bell, 1847. *''Poems'' (with memoir by William Johnston). London: Edward Moxon, 1853. Novel *''The Conspirators; or, The romance of military life''. (3 volumes), London: 1841. Translated *Luis de Camões, The Lusiad: Books I-V. London: Edward Moxon, 1853. Collected editions *''Occasional poems / Bertram / Five Sonnets addressed to Wootton / Dunluce Castle / Stanzas by the author of Dunluce Castle / Select Poems''. New York: Garland, 1978. *''Consolation / Elegiac Verses / Monthermer / The Sacrifice of Isabel / Woodcuts and Verses / Carmina Brugensiana''. New York: Garland, 1978. Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.Search results = au:Edward Quillinan, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, Oct. 1, 2016. See also *List of British poets References * . Wikisource, Web, Oct. 1, 2016. Notes External links * Quillinan, Edward Category:English poets Category:People from Porto Category:British people of Irish descent Category:British military personnel of the Napoleonic Wars Category:1791 births Category:1851 deaths Category:English male writers Category:19th-century poets Category:English-language poets Category:English translators Category:Poets Category:Translators to English